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Four Winds: The early leveling experience in Amazon’s Throne & Liberty
In the last edition of Four Winds, I covered the opening hours of my journey through Throne and Liberty. Overall, the tutorial island did...
Four Winds: Looking back at the early Throne and Liberty journey from the vantage of endgame
In the last edition of Four Winds, I found myself cautiously enjoying Throne and Liberty. The game had its hooks in me. I found an engaging game...
Four Winds: Throne & Liberty’s opening hours were fun AF, but I’m still on my guard
After what feels like an absolute eternity, Throne and Liberty is finally here. In my younger, less jaded years, I'd feel excited and elated...
Four Winds: Wuthering Waves, Genshin Impact, and the burgeoning gacha gaming industry
In the early days of the pandemic, I spent a lot of time covering the then newly released Genshin Impact. The first piece was...
Four Winds: Phantasy Star Online 2 offers some of the best social features in MMORPGs
I don't know about everyone else, but a huge part of MMOs for me is the fashion. My characters need to absolutely slay the runway...
Four Winds: Catching up with Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis
I believe it was Napoleon Bonaparte that once said "SEGA better release Phantasy Star Online 2 stateside or I'm going to conquer France." Unfortunately,...
Four Winds: Swords of Legends Online was a wasted opportunity
MMOs are hard to make. But despite the difficulties, we've seen some real gems over the years. They're also difficult to run. But the...
Four Winds: The Artist has become my favorite support class in Lost Ark
Here's a thought experiment: How would have Anakin Skywalker turned out if he had grown up on planet covered in paint rather than coarse,...
Kakao’s mobile MMO Moonlight Sculptor is closing down in May after less than two years online
At 4:20 a.m. EST this morning, Kakao and XL Games announced that Moonlight Sculptor's global servers are set for demolition in multiple regions just...
Albion Online launches an Asian server on March 20 with multiple founder packs
Albion Online, recipient of our own Best PvP MMO award two years running, is expanding its horizons eastward with an Asian server launching on...
Four Winds: Lost Ark and the refinement of MMO item enhance systems
In the last edition of Four Winds, I promised I'd cover how three MMOs utilized item enhance systems to facilitate progression, and then I...
Fractured Online disables new purchases for players in Asian countries, posts new survey
Players who want to play Fractured Online but live in Japan are going to have a harder time at this point, as Dynamight Studios...
Four Winds: The refinement of item enhance systems in MMOs, from Granado Espada to Black Desert
Itemization is a foundational system in many modern MMOs. After players reach the level cap, item levels largely drive the measurable progression of a...
Four Winds: What made Lost Ark so successful where Elyon failed?
I'm sad about it, but I have to eat my words about Elyon and its place in this decade's pantheon of MMOs. I honestly...
Four Winds: Remembering TERA’s wild start and in-game politics
Well, the TERA sunset thing caught me off guard. I don't play TERA, but I was always under the impression that the game was...
Interview: Lost Ark’s regional parity, genderlocking, and the Amazon-Smilegate collaboration
A few days before the western release of Lost Ark, we posed questions to the Amazon Games team, and franchise lead Soomin Park was...
Four Winds: The good, the bad, and the weird of Lost Ark’s endgame
So here I am, at the top of the mountain of Lost Ark, but then another rise greets me. I've been moving at a...
Hands-on: Lost Ark is a solid MMO that falls just short of true greatness
After years of waiting, the MMOARPG Lost Ark launches in the west today, at least for those who bought founder's packs. The rest of...
First Impressions: Elyon continues to blend in with the MMORPG gaming furniture
After about 30 or so levels and an entirely different class, I can pretty much say with a fair bit of confidence that my...
Bless Unleashed gets a boost from Chinese players as Round8 renames servers
If you've paid attention to the concurrency numbers that Bless Unleashed is doing on SteamDB, you might be wondering how a game that largely...
